The Woman Who Ate the World

Let me first make it clear that some of what I have to say may piss some people off, so I'll say it now and you don't need to read the rest if you hate me already. I lost 15lbs in three weeks (by being sick) and now can't seem to gain an ounce back even though I'm eating all the time.

I've been a bit ill for about a month and have finally been diagnosed with a thyroid problem. Hyperthyroidism, I guess. Apparently that was the reason that I spent most of the past month sleeping. A typical day was: wake up, have breakfast, read a little, take a nap, have lunch, complain how difficult it is to walk up one flight of stairs, play on the computer, take a nap, have dinner, go to bed.

So the doc put me on some drugs. If it were up to me those drugs would have been alcohol and marijuana, but no, I got steroids and antibiotics (it turns out I had an ear infection too). But that's not a bad trade.

Anyway, some of the symptoms (that I had) of hyperthyroidism are lethargy, hair loss (didn't figure that one out for a while, since I don't like to brush my hair), night sweats, and of course, weight loss. As soon as I got on the steroids I felt better. I had energy, I could stand for more than three minutes without needing to rest, and I stopped loosing weight.

Which brings me to the present. For about the past three days all I have wanted to do is eat. I can't seem to go 10 minutes without putting something in my mouth and still am hungry before bed. Carlos has never seem me like this (we've known each other for two and a half years and have been living together for almost a year and a half). Even his mom is surprised that instead of insisting that I am full after lunch (which I usually am, it's always a three course meal, popcorn or just corn first, then soup, then meat always with rice, but usually potatoes or pasta as well, occasionally dessert), I am asking for more.

So if take my earlier typical day and replace "nap" with "snack," you'll get the idea.

But I still have not gained any weight back. It's not all that great to loose about 13% of your body weight (yes, the bathroom scale is teetering on 100). All I want to do is be myself again. I can barely do a single push up (before the illness I was doing about 4 or 5 sets of a dozen every other morning). My pants are falling down and I'm tripping over hems, and no I do not own a belt. Plus, I feel even more cold than usual.

Ooh, chocolate...OK, snack is over.

Fortunately, this feeding binge will coincide with my visit home. On Saturday I head to the states for two weeks, mainly to meet my new nephew, plan my wedding, and be home for passover. But I am already planning my meals, day by day, restaurant by restaurant, kitchen by kitchen. It's not that I don't like the food here, it's good, but there is a slight lack of variety. For example, cilantro (which I hate) and achiote (which I refer to as poor man's saffron) are used to season pretty much everything. You don't see much rosemary, oregano, thyme, or any sage at all (how I miss such a simple sauce of brown butter with sage). Finding Indian spices is a bit tough too, but there is a decent Indian restaurant in town. But my problem with Indian food was that during my three week trip to India last year I never bothered to learn the names of what I was eating, and I actually liked almost everything I put in my mouth.

By the way, for those of you who do not know about my food habits, until I was about 23 years old (I am now 29), I had what one would call a "white food" diet. It wasn't truly white, just very pale. I pretty much only ate, bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, chicken, Cheerios, and cheddar or mozzarella cheese. I mean, I ate some other stuff too, like pizza and steak, but the closest I would get to something green was mint chocolate chip ice cream. I didn't cook back then either, because I went from living at home to dorm food to an apartment with a former culinary student (my sister), a line chef (Alexis) and Connie (who just always seems to know how to do anything and everything). I was the dishwasher.

Anyway, after traveling the world and living on my own a bit, I learned how to cook (and eat) and love it. Now when I visit another country, or even city, I always end up in the grocery store or market just to look, and maybe taste. After years without variety, now all I want is something different for every meal. I want tapas, sushi, dim sum, Indian, Peking duck, mac and cheese, rack of lamb, something Thai, deep dish pizza, thin mint cookies...I would even eat something Dutch. The cheese is what I miss the most from Holland, the shear variety was overwhelming (I miss the beer too, but those were from Belgium).

Now I'm hungry again. Chocolate's gone :(